ng-wine
too strong."

"Barbara the sewing-woman--" began a young voice, which immediately
collapsed, the speaker retreating with great impetuosity behind her
mother or aunt, whichever it might be.

Then each little member of the maidenly circle looked very odd, and
their good relative uttered hurriedly but mildly, "Oh, it's nothing.
How could you, Lisi? Behave yourselves, children!"

However, an explanation of the sewing-woman Barbara being pleaded for
on our part, the good woman nervously continued: "It is only a foolish
story. Only that the sewing-woman Barbara was sweet on Weaver Thomas,
and he could not abide her. 'I would rather,' he told her, 'be a beast
in the stall than be your wedded husband.' The sewing-woman said he
should rue the day he thus insulted her. And sure enough, from that
time he could neither eat nor drink, growing poor and thin in the
body. Everybody said, 'Sewing-woman Barbara has struck him with the
evil eye.' I am not sure but that his teeth chattered, which they say
is a sign. A miller urged him to have the letters I.N.R.I. stitched
into his clothes (it is a wonderful preservative on corn-bins and
stable doors against the evil eye), but Weaver Thomas replied he was
sick of stitching. Yet what is to become of the man? Not a drop of
wine does he touch now but it flies to his head--not a kreuzer of his
hard-earned money does he put into his pocket but it oozes away like
water. Ah, it is an ugly story! I wish there were no such fearsome,
boggy things. The world would be better without them."

By this time a fat lad had ventured up, and stood gaping behind the
maidens. He was not of Pfalzen, but the girls spoke to him as a cousin
of the house. In spite of their encouragement, he merely gaped and
stared, without answering a word. The pleasures of the table had, in
fact, brought him into a state of speechless discomfort. It was not of
wine that he had partaken, though it had freely circulated, to judge
by the great empty gallon bottles, but he had stuck loyally to the
principles laid down and acted on by his elders, of doing full justice
to the dishes. Feeling now, therefore, exceedingly the worse for his
praiseworthy exertions, he remained leaning disconsolately with his
back against the wall long after the church-bells had struck up a
merry clang, vigorously calling the Hofbauer, his men-servants and
maid-servants and the strangers who were within his gates, to church.
Good Kathi, however, wh